


Dogs

by Toe



Category: Utopia (TV 2013)
Genre: F/M, p much just chewing on milner's character, this week's theme is sad drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 03:01:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12596660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toe/pseuds/Toe
Summary: Milner lets herself get a little sad about Tom.





	Dogs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starlatine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlatine/gifts).



Milner didn’t stir from her seat when she heard the door open. There was only one man it could be, anymore. Instead, she stared at the bubbles rising in her glass.

It wasn’t long before he found her seated at her couch, all business as he approached, mechanical, disrupting the atmosphere of melancholy she had cultivated. “I have updates on the situation,” he announced.

“Go on, then.”

The Assistant frowned, his eyes sweeping over the table as he took in her cold, half-eaten dinner, the full ashtray, the glass in her hand, and finally her, but he made no comment as he dutifully rattled off the names of their freshest corpses.

“Thank you,” Milner said.

He ducked his head in a small bow and drew his coat around him. “If that’s all--”

“Sit. Have a drink,” Milner invited, and though it had been an offer and not an order, of course he sat. She offered him her glass and he took it, drinking deeply.

“Champagne? What’s the occasion?” he asked, passing the glass back.

Milner drained the last of the champagne and busied herself pouring another glass. “The occasion is I’m finally indulging in mourning for Tom and I’ve turned myself into a maudlin mess.” Philip was having enough trouble doing what was necessary without her setting a bad example, so she had set aside her emotions, left them behind for the thrill of immersing herself in her task, but they were still there. She was still sad, and that seemed like something that she should acknowledge for Tom’s sake, at least.

The Assistant hummed, but didn’t comment, watching her softly, waiting for more.

Milner turned to stare out the window, unconcerned to find only blackness outside. “I really did love him, you know.”

He nodded. “But not the way you love Carvel.”

“We're going to do great things," she said wistfully. “Saving the world.”

“You’re such a romantic,” he teased.

Milner smiled wryly at her lap as she gave him a playful shove in the shoulder, then she stopped smiling because even when it was about Tom, it was about Carvel, wasn’t it? It was like greatness surrounded him, spilled from him, something she wanted to bask in and breathe in. She was a terrier at his table, desperate for scraps.

“It’ll all be worth it,” she said, and she believed it. 

She had been working on the champagne for a while; the world had gone soft around the edges, and maybe that was why she found herself so desperately holding The Assistant’s eyes with a tiny, silly bubble of panic rising within her. “This is what I do to what I love, you know. To those who love me. The moment there’s an obstacle, I hold them underwater until they can’t struggle anymore.”

“I know,” he said simply, unruffled by the look Milner was giving him, by the tone of her voice.

She leaned back, satisfied. “You do, don’t you?”

“Always have.”

Milner shook her head and smiled faintly at her glass. “We love like dogs, the both of us.”

**Author's Note:**

> A yuletide gift for starlatine!
> 
> I only watched Utopia because of your request and what a show. As a writer of primarily cute/tender comedy everything about Utopia is out of my comfort zone, so this ended up being short, but I had to give it a shot. Hope you enjoy it!


End file.
